ITHE  PREPARATION 

OF  THE 

MODERN  MUSPTER 
MOORE 


7.  •2-3    OQ 

PRINCETON,   N.  J.  ^ 


BV  660  .M66  1909 
Moore,  Walter  W.  1857-1926 
The  preparation  of  the 
modern  minister 


^m  OF  PB/^^ 
*    JUL  29  1909 

PREPARATION   OF   THE 


THE  ^^ 


MODERN   MINISTER 


BY 


WALTER    WILLIAM    MOORE 

PRESIDENT    OF    UNION    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY, 
RICHMOND,    VIRGINIA 


NEW   YORK 

Student  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 

124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 

The  International  Committee  op  Young  Men's 

Christian  Associations 


The   Claims  and   Opportunities 
of  the   Christian  Ministry 

A    SERIES    OF    PAMPHLETS 
EDITED   BY  JOHN   R.   MOTT 


THE    PREPARATION   OF  THE   MODERN 
MINISTER 

By  WALTER   WILLIAM    MOORE 


series  of  pamphlets  on  tiik 

Claims  and  Opportunities  of  the 
Christian  Ministry 


The    Claims    of    tup:    Ministry    on    Strong 
Men 
By  George  Angier  Gordon 

The  Right  Sort  of  Men  for  the  Ministry 
By  William  Fraser  McDowell 

The   Modern   Interpretation   of   the  Call 
to  the  Ministry 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Preparation  of  the  Modern  Minister 
By  Walter  William  Moore 

The  Minister  and  His  People 
By  Phillips  Brooks 

The  Minister  and  the  Community 
By  WooDROW  Wilson 

The  Call  of  the  Country  Church 

By  Arthur  Stephen  Hoyt 
The  Weak  Church  and  the  Strong  Man 

By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Minister  as  Preacher 

By  Charles  P:dward  Jefferson 


Letter  from  President  Roosevelt 

On  the  Call  of  the  Nation  for  Able  Men  to 

Lead  the  Forces  of  Christian!  iv 


THE   PREPARATION  OF  THE 
MODERN  MINISTER 

The  end  should  determine  the  means.  The  prep- 
aration a  man  receives  should  be  determined  by  the 
work  he  is  to  do.  The  answer  to  the  question,  What 
kind  of  training  should  a  minister  have?  is  found  in 
the  answer  to  the  question,  What  is  to  be  the  minis- 
ter's work?  When  we  know  what  he  is  to  do  we 
shall  know  how  to  train  him  to  do  it. 

What,  then,  is  the  true  ideal  of  a  minister's  work? 
We  may  answer  in  brief  that  he  is  to  be  the  chief  ex- 
emplar, teacher,  and  functionary  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion to  the  people  of  his  charge.  This  involves 
five  essential  things,  and  these  five  things  have  de- 
termined the  general  organization  and  course  of 
study  which  have  been  adopted  by  practically  all 
branches  of  the  Church  in  their  training  schools  for 
ministers,  and  which,  as  thus  approved  by  the  wis- 
dom and  experience  of  the  past  and  agreed  upon 
by  virtually  the  whole  Church,  should  still  constitute 
5 


the  basis  and  body  of  every  thoroughgoing  course 
of  ministerial  training,  whatever  modifications  of  de- 
tail may  be  made  to  meet  the  demands  of  any  par- 
ticular time  or  community,  and  however  opinions 
may  vary  as  to  the  relative  stress  to  be  laid  upon 
each  of  these  five  disciplines,  fundamental  in  the 
preparation  of  the  minister. 

In  the  first  place,  in  order  that  the  minister  may 
be  a  true  exponent  of  the  Christian  religion,  he  must 
himself  have  had  experience  of  its  power.  Before  a 
man  can  shine  he  must  burn.  ''The  outer  must  be 
preceded  by  the  inner;  public  life  for  God  must  be 
preceded  by  private  life  with  God;  unless  God  has 
first  spoken  to  a  man,  it  is  vain  for  a  man  to  attempt 
to  speak  for  God.  .  .  .  The  prime  qualification  of  a 
minister  is  that  he  be  himself  a  religious  man — that 
before  he  begins  to  make  God  known,  he  should 
first  himself  know  God."  '  His  experience  of  God 
will  be  the  measure  of  his  power  with  men.  If  he 
does  not  speak  with  enthusiasm — and  let  us  remem- 
ber in  passing  that  the  word  means,  etymologically, 
"having  God  within" — if  he  does  not  speak  with  en- 
thusiasm he  does  not  speak  with  effect. 

>  James  Stalker,  "The  Preacher  and  His  Models,"  p.  9. 

6 


The  Old  Testament  prophet  was  the  prototype  of 
the  New  Testament  preacher.  There  are  three 
words  in  the  Hebrew  which  are  translated  "prophet." 
Two  of  these  words  mean  to  see,  and  the  third  means 
to  speak,  and  to  speak  out  of  the  overflowing  full- 
ness of  the  heart.  Here  then  are  the  essential  ideas, 
spiritual  insight  and  spontaneous,  irrepressible,  mag- 
netic speech.  "These  prophets  are  not  mere  messen- 
gers. They  are  not  like  a  telegraph  boy  who  takes 
a  sealed  letter  from  the  office  and  carries  it  to  some 
one  and  does  not  know  what  it  contains.  They  are 
not  like  phonographs  to  whom  the  message  is  com- 
municated and  by  whom  the  message  is  repeated. 
Their  messages  are  not  dictated  to  them;  they  are 
not  merely  amanuenses  who  write  down  what  is  dic- 
tated. The  message  enters  into  them,  transforms 
their  nature,  makes  them  what  they  are.  So  they  are 
holy  men,  spiritual  men,  godly  men,  with  the  message 
wrought  into  their  own  consciousness  and  coming 
forth  from  their  own  consciousness.  It  becomes 
part  of  their  nature.  The  word  is  in  their  hearts 
as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  their  bones.  They  cannot 
keep  it  to  themselves;  it  must  find  expression."  * 
•  Lyman  Abbott,  "The  Christian  Ministry,"  pp.  240-241. 

7 


Since  "Christian  theology  is  the  science  of  the 
Christian  religion,  as  revealed  in  the  Bible,  devel- 
oped in  history,  and  believed  and  practiced  in  the 
Church,"  and  since  the  minister  is  the  official  ex- 
ponent of  this  religion,  he  must  of  course  master  this 
science  in  its  four  recognized  divisions,  to  be  pres- 
ently named;  but  more  fundamental  and  decisive 
than  all  other  branches  of  theology  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  minister  is  what  we  may  call  experimen- 
tal theology — that  personal  experience  of  God  by 
which  he  receives  into  himself  the  divine  message 
and  makes  it  a  part  of  his  life.  Only  as  the  truth 
has  been  vitalized  in  a  man's  own  heart  will  it  come 
with  living  power  to  other  hearts.  Pectus  est  quod 
theologiim  facit. 

In  the  second  place,  in  order  that  he  may  be  an 
authoritative  exponent  of  the  Christian  religion,  the 
minister  must  know  how  Christianity  came  to  be; 
that  is,  he  must  have  a  first-hand  acquaintance  with 
the  record  of  the  revelations  of  God  through  Israel  and 
Christ  and  the  Apostles.  Therefore  he  should  know 
both  his  Old  Testament  and  his  New,*  not  only  as 
to  their  general  factual  and  doctrinal  contents  as  ex- 
»  Vet  us  Testament  urn  in  Novo  patet,  Novum  Testament  urn 
in  Vetere  latet,  Augustine. 

8 


hibited  in  the  English  Version — such  a  knowledge  is 
now  common  in  the  theological  lay  public  of  Protes- 
tant countries,  and  he  is  to  be  the  leader  and  teacher 
of  that  public — but  he  should  know  them  also  in  the 
form  in  which  they  were  originally  given,  and  should 
be  able  to  expound  them  to  his  people  with  the  con- 
fidence of  assured  knowledge  of  the  sources.  This 
is  exegetical  theology,  and  since  the  Bible  is  the  in- 
strument which  God  uses  for  bringing  men  to  the 
knowledge  of  Himself  as  He  is  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ,  this  thorough  study  of  the  Bible  which  pre- 
pares a  man  to  interpret  it  to  his  fellow-men  should 
always  occupy  a  very  large  place  in  the  training  of 
the  minister  for  the  duties  of  his  oflSce. 

"To-day  there  are  widespread  discussions  as  to 
whether  Hebrew  should  be  studied  in  theological 
seminaries  as  a  compulsory  subject;  and  when  one 
or  two  seminaries  had  made  it  elective,  others  were 
compelled  to  'go  them  one  better'  by  making  Greek 
also  elective.  There  is  nothing  to  be  said  about 
this,  except  that  where  it  takes  able  men  and  puts 
them  out  into  the  ministry  without  these,  the  theo- 
logical seminary  is  unspeakably  cruel,  and  the  man 
who  consents  to  this  impoverishing  of  his  equipment 
9 


is  short-sigh Ird  in  llic  extreme.  The  man  who  will 
take  time  for  a  full  preparation  and  who  has  the 
courage  for  hard  work,  and  who  has  before  him  that 
one  true  and  lofty  ideal  for  his  forty  years  of  pastoral 
labor,  would  always  passionately  resent  the  treat- 
ment which  induced  him  to  forego  his  full  equip- 
ment in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  not 
meant  that  he  is  to  become  an  expert  in  higher  criti- 
cism. But  it  is  meant  that  he  must  be  able  intelli- 
gently, broad-mindedly  to  judge  of  the  the(jries 
which  on  all  hands  are  being  thrown  up  by  the  ex- 
perts, so  that,  as  one  of  the  greatest  among  living 
scholars  has  said,  he  may  possess  *an  intelligent  ac- 
quaintance as  to  what  is  certain,  probable,  and 
doubtful  in  the  sphere  of  Biblical  criticism.'"  ' 

In  a  suggestive  article  on  ''The  Homiletical  Worth 
of  the  Study  of  Hebrew"  '  Professor  W.  N.  Dono- 
van shows  that  the  Hebrew  language  is  of  profit  to 
the  preacher  in  its  influence  on  his  owti  personality, 
broadening  his  intellectual  horizon  by  acquainting 
him  with  the  thought  method  of  the  Semites,  accus- 

>  W.  Douglas  Mackenzie,  "Practical  Training  for  the  Min- 
istry," The  Homiletic  Review,  December,  1907,  p.  4i7' 
2  The  Biblical  World,  July,  1908,  p.  51. 
10 


toming  his  mind  to  new  views  and  distinctions,  and 
deepening  his  sympathy  as  the  emotional  traits  of 
another  race  are  explored;  in  its  effect  on  both  the 
content  and  delivery  of  his  message,  furnishing  as  it 
does  an  abundance  of  warm,  living  imagery  setting 
forth  things  fundamental  in  life,  stimulating  his  ap- 
preciation of  moral  values,  breaking  through  his  An- 
glo-Saxon habits  of  thought  and  expression,  '' punc- 
turing with  vital  suggestion  the  hardened  familiarity 
of  our  thought  and  feeling,"  and  rendering  the  heart 
and  mind  more  responsive  to  the  appeals  of  the  spir- 
itual life;  and  in  the  inspirational  power  which  it  has 
from  its  intimate  association  with  the  most  spiritual 
messages  given  to  the  race.  No  one  should  under- 
estimate any  factor  that  brings  out  more  clearly  the 
exact  flavor  of  the  message,  or  brings  one  closer  to 
the  Spirit-filled  men.  Such  a  factor  must  be  the  lan- 
guage through  which  these  messages  came  to  the 
world.  "Give  a  bright  man  only  a  year's  seminary 
course  in  Hebrew,  and  he  will  be  going  back  of  our 
best  translations  with  satisfaction  to  his  intellect  and 
profit  to  his  soul." 

But,  while  the  language  offers  these  great  advan- 
tages to  the  man  who  has  the  ability,  energy  and  time 


to  acquire  it,  they  do  not  justify  the  claim  that  every 
minister  must  study  Hebrew.  The  writer  is  stating 
normal  advantages  for  the  normal  man.  "Excep- 
tional men  should  have  exceptional  training  adapted 
to  their  exceptional  gifts.  ...  So  far  as  this  paper 
succeeds  in  gaining  its  purpose,  it  has  in  view  the 
great  mass  of  students  for  the  ministry,  not  the  men 
phenomenally  unable  to  acquire  a  language,  nor,  at 
the  other  extreme,  the  brilliant  linguist  whose  es- 
pecial endowments  enable  him  to  gain  especial  profit 
from  any  language-study,  but  the  mass  of  reason- 
ably equipped,  earnest,  practical  men.  To  such  the 
study  of  Hebrew  ofifers  assured  advantages,  homilet- 
ically,  and  in  practical  personal  development." 

The  practical  value  of  a  knowledge  of  Greek  is  still 
more  indisputable — so  clear  indeed  that,  though 
there  are  some  who  question  even  this,  it  is  still  gen- 
erally admitted. 

In  addition  to  the  thorough  and  detailed  study  of 
selected  Scriptures  in  the  original  languages — and 
surely  the  regular  course  in  seminaries  should  in- 
clude at  least  the  masterpieces  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New  in  the  form  in  which  they  were  first 
given — the  prospective  minister  must  become  famil- 

12 


iar  with  the  Word  in  its  English  dress.  He  must  have 
a  ready  command  of  the  general  contents  of  the  Bible 
and  each  of  its  books.  The  microscopic  method 
must  be  supplemented  by  the  telescopic.  The  study 
of  the  English  Version  should  be  given  a  large  place 
in  each  of  the  three  seminary  years — sufficiently 
large  to  give  the  student  a  clear  conspectus  and  a 
firm  grasp  of  each  of  the  books  and  of  the  Bible 
as  a  whole. 

In  the  third  place,  in  order  that  he  may  be  an 
authority  on  the  Christian  religion,  the  minister  must 
know  what  Christianity  has  done  in  the  world  and 
how  it  has  done  it.  This  branch  of  his  preparation 
is  called  historical  theology,  or  Church  history,  since 
it  traces  the  growth  of  Christianity  with  all  its  in- 
structive experiences  and  developments  from  the 
founding  of  the  Church  to  the  present  time,  giving 
the  minister  the  benefit  of  the  accumulated  wisdom 
and  experience  of  the  past,  teaching  him  how  to  avoid 
the  errors  and  mistakes  of  his  predecessors,  prevent- 
ing him  from  "mistaking  old  errors  in  a  new  dress 
for  new  discoveries,"  vivifying  his  knowledge  of  the 
content  of  Scripture  teaching,  and  showing  *'God  in 
the  march  of  his  providence  illustrating  his  word." 
13 


In  the  fourth  place,  in  urdcr  that  he  may  be  a  true 
exponent  of  Christianity,  the  minister  must  know 
the  general  system  of  Christian  truth  as  a  whole,  the 
unity,  harmony,  and  completeness  of  the  revealed 
religion  as  an  organism;  he  must  have  a  comprehen- 
sive, scientific,  orderly  view  of  "the  doctrines  and  duties 
of  Christianity  as  now  held  and  understood  on  the 
basis  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  history  of  the  church"; 
he  must  be  as  much  at  home  in  the  New  Testament 
epistles  as  in  the  narrative  parts  of  Scripture,  but 
thinking  intensely  through  their  intense  thinking, 
thus  making  his  sermons  not  merely  interesting  but 
impressive  with  the  weight  and  grandeur  of  New 
Testament  thought;  he  must  acquire  such  a  grasp 
of  the  entire  content  of  Scriptural  teaching  as  will 
enable  him  in  the  light  of  the  whole  to  interpret 
aright  any  particular  part,  to  avoid  scrappiness  and 
incoherence  in  his  presentation  of  it,  and  to  give  to 
the  mind  of  the  hearer  the  satisfying  feeling  that  every 
partial  truth  has  the  pressure  of  the  whole  truth  be- 
hind it.*  This  department  therefore,  systematic  the- 
ology, has,  like  the  others,  great  practical  value.  It 
is  vitally  related  to  the  minister's  efficiency. 
»  "The  Clerical  Life,"  p.  58. 
14 


"  Great  preaching  only  breaks  out  of  the  deep  rich 
soil  of  a  great  theology.  The  age  of  great  preachers 
has  always  been  the  age  of  great  religious  beliefs. 
Preaching,  to  be  robust,  trenchant,  down-reaching, 
soul-searching,  will-compelling,  life-moulding,  must 
be  theological,  dogmatic,  authoritative.  The  great 
preaching  has  always  and  only  been  done  by  the  the- 
ological athletes,  by  men  who  believed  something,  by 
men  who  were  saturated  and  steeped  with  the  spir- 
itual certitudes,  by  men  who  could  think  God's 
thoughts  after  Him  and  thread  their  way  through  that 
ordered  plan  by  which  God  saves  the  world  to  the 
glory  of  His  grace.  We  notice,  if  we  have  read  any 
history,  that  the  notable  spiritual  world-movements 
and  upheavals  have  all  been  inspired  by  great  con- 
victions of  truth.  From  the  Apostolic  age  to  the 
Augustinian,  from  the  Reformation  to  the  Puritan, 
they  have  been  theological  ages.  The  great  epochs 
have  been  theological;  the  great  revivals  have  been 
doctrinal;  the  notable  revolutions  have  been  driven 
under  the  lash  of  great  moral  and  doctrinal  convic- 
tions. 

It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  a  minister  or 
church  can  get  on  without  a  theology.  An  individual 
15 


it  has  been  said,  may  get  on  with  religion,  but  'a 
church  must  have  its  dogma.'  Its  vitality  will  ebb  if 
you  devitalize  its  creed,  or  cut  it  down  to  the  vanish- 
ing point.  The  world  with  its  great  heart-hunger, 
with  its  corroding  misery,  is  not  going  to  make  large 
I^lace  for  the  clerical  invertebrate  who  goes  to  his 
work  mumbling  his  half-beliefs  and  disseminating  his 
unreasoned  opinions,  throwing  out  his  theological  con- 
jectures like  half-spans  that  rest  on  no  solid  piers  in 
midstream  and  reach  no  further  shores  of  assured 
certitude.  ...  It  is  not  from  too  much  theology  the 
Church  sufifers  but  from  far  too  little.  It  is  not  from 
too  much  dogmatism  and  authority  the  pulpit  is  weak, 
but  from  the  lack  of  the  positive  note  and  the  author- 
itative accent  born  of  great  convictions  of  the  larger 
truth.' 

So  Dr.  W.  A.  Bartlett,  pastor  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  of  Chicago,  speaking  of  decadent 
churches,  finds  the  explanation  of  them  in  the  insuffi- 
cient training  of  the  theological  seminaries.  "They 
are  teaching  more  things  than  ever,  but  not  always  the 
one  thing  needful.     The  young  man  who  goes  into 

»  Samuel  H.  Howe,  "The  Place  of  Theolog}'  in  Preaching," 
Bible  Student  and  Teacher,  October,  1906,  pp.  244-5,  -47- 

16 


a  community  as  minister  has  often  very  vague  ideas 
concerning  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  He  has 
a  kind  of  pottering  knowledge  of  many  things  which 
makes  him  believe  that  the  regeneration  of  the  neigh- 
borhood is  to  be  brought  about  through  a  gentle, 
ethical,  social  settlement  regime.  He  dabbles  in  pol- 
itics, economics,  clubs,  and  various  worthy  institutions, 
which  were  never  intended  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Church,  and  becomes  a  kind  of  errand  boy  for  every- 
thing from  the  bricklayers'  union  to  a  woman's  guild, 
to  provide  soft  food  for  people  without  teeth.  The 
Church  has  one  great  mission,  and  when  it  faithfully- 
fulfils  that  mission  it  will  never  lack  in  interest  and 
power.  The  mission  of  the  Church  is  to  preach  to 
mankind  the  whole  counsel  of  God." 

Let  it  be  noted  that  neither  Dr.  Howe  nor  Dr. 
Bartlett  is  a  theological  professor.  They  are  both 
active  pastors,  and  they  urge  the  study  of  systematic 
theology  in  the  interest,  not  of  mere  scholarship,  but 
of  practical  efficiency  in  the  ministry. 

In   like    manner   Professor   Peabody    of   Harvard 

holds  that  the  neglect  of  theology  is  a  grave  mistake 

which  threatens  the  usefulness  of  the  ministry,  and 

he  laments  that  feeling  and  action  are  crowding  out 

17 


of  the  foreground  of  interest  tlic  function  of  thought, 
that  the  passion  for  service  is  supplanting  the  passion 
for  truth.  "Not  less  of  religious  fervor  and  not  less 
of  i)ractical  activity  are  demanded  of  the  representa- 
tives of  religion,  but  a  new  accession  of  intellectual 
power,  the  capacity  to  translate  the  message  of  the 
Timeless  into  the  dialect  of  the  present  age.  The 
specialization  of  knowledge  has  prescribed  to  the 
minister  of  religion  a  defmite  sphere,  and  no  amount 
of  hastily  acquired  information  about  politics  or  eco- 
nomics or  social  reform  can  atone  for  the  abandon- 
ment of  his  own  province.  On  other  subjects  others 
are  better  trained  than  he,  and  may  listen  to  his  coun- 
sel with  compassion,  if  not  with  contempt.  If  he 
gives  up  thinking  about  religion,  he  gives  up  his  place 
in  a  learned  profession.  He  may  continue  to  be  a 
devoted  priest,  an  efficient  administrator,  a  devout 
soul,  but  the  direction  of  the  mind  of  the  age  is  trans- 
ferred to  other  hands."  ^ 

In  the  fifth  place,  in  order  that  he  may  be  an  ef- 
fective exponent  of  Christianity,  the  minister  must 
know  how  to  utilize  the  results  of  his  exegetical,  his- 
torical, and  systematic  study  of  revealed  truth  for  the 
•  The  Harvard  Theological  Review,  January,  1908. 
18 


accomplishment  of  the  two  great  ends  for  which  the 
Church  exists,  self-propagation  and  self-edification, 
evangelistic  work  and  pastoral  work,  ingathering  and 
upbuilding.  This  consummation  of  sacred  learning 
to  which  all  other  departments  look  and  by  which 
they  become  useful  for  the  establishment  and  ex- 
tension of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world  is  prac- 
tical theology — "the  science  and  art  of  the  various 
functions  of  the  Christian  ministry  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  propagation  of  the  Christian  religion  at 
home  and  abroad."  * 

The  preparation  of  the  modern  minister  will  include 
special  training  in  each  of  five  divisions:  First,  experi- 
mental theology,  which  has  to  do  with  the  man's  own 
experience  of  the  religion  which  he  preaches;  second, 
exegetical  theology,  which  has  to  do  with  the  record 
of  those  revelations  which  constitute  the  Christian 
rule  of  faith  and  practice;  third,  historical  theology, 
which  has  to  do  with  the  past  history  and  growth 
of  Christianity  ;  fourth,  systematic  theology,  which 
has  to  do  with  its  present  status;  and  fifth,  prac- 
tical theology,  which  has  to  do  with  its  future  pros- 

*  Philip  Schaff,  "Theological  Propaedeutic,"  p.  448. 
19 


pects.  These  five  things  still  constitute  the  hack- 
bone  of  theological  training.  They  are  indispensa- 
ble to  a  full  ministerial  equipment.  Each  of  them 
has  a  distinctly  practical  end.  They  are  studied  not 
merely  for  knowledge  but  for  use,  not  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  intellectual  curiosity  but  for  the  promotion 
of  practical  efficiency.  The  supreme  aim  is  not  to 
make  accomplished  scholars  and  specialists  in  the 
various  departments  of  theological  science,  but  to 
make  good  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
will  serve  Him  and  His  Church  with  increasing  ef- 
ficiency year  after  year. 

Some  of  those  who  advocate  the  abandonment  of 
this  broad,  generous,  and  thorough  discipline,  and 
the  substitution  for  it  of  biology,  hypnotism,  mental 
and  physical  hygiene,  and  a  psychology  and  peda- 
gogy, which  deny  the  possibility  of  any  such  break 
as  is  implied  in  conversion  and  the  new  birth,  do  un- 
questionably minimize  or  eliminate  the  supernatural 
element  in  religion,  throw  overboard  the  Biblical  doc- 
trines of  grace,  and  ''leave  Christianity  merely  a  sys- 
tem of  morals  and  the  best  only  of  natural  religions." 
But  not  all  of  those  who  advocate  the  addition  of 
other  studies  to  the  seminary  curriculum  and  who 

20 


demand  a  change  of  the  relative  emphasis  put  upon 
the  different  parts  of  the  course  are  of  this  radical  and 
destructive  type.  The  very  statement  of  the  subject 
assigned  me,  "The  Preparation  of  the  Modern  Min- 
ister," implies  that  some  such  change  is  needed,  and 
this  assumption  is  correct. 

Most  of  the  changes  called  for  lie  in  the  last  of  the 
five  great  departments  outlined  above,  practical  the- 
ology, the  science  and  art  of  the  functions  of  the  min- 
ister, the  study  of  the  methods  by  which  he  brings 
the  saving  truth  to  bear  upon  the  individual  and  the 
community  of  his  own  time.  The  modern  minister 
has  a  fourfold  function:  as  pastor,  as  leader  of  public 
worship,  as  administrator,  and  as  preacher.  It  seems 
to  be  generally  conceded  that  most  of  our  seminaries 
give  their  students  adequate  preparation  for  their 
work  as  pastors  and  as  leaders  of  worship.  They 
are  taught  the  best  methods  of  pastoral  visitation, 
as  the  friends  and  counsellors  of  their  people,  and 
the  best  methods  of  personal  work  with  the  inquirer, 
the  doubter,  and  other  classes  of  individuals  needing 
special  guidance  and  help;  and  they  are  carefully  in- 
structed in  the  orderly  and  edifying  conduct  of  pub- 
lic worship  and  in  the  high  function  of  interpreting 

21 


the  j)e()ijle  to  GcxJ.  But  it  is  claimed  that  they  are 
not  always  adequately  prepared  for  their  work  as  ad- 
ministrators and  preachers. 

As  the  minister  is  to  be  the  executive  head  of  his 
church,  and  as  the  modern  church,  especially  in  the 
cities,  is  in  many  cases  an  elaborate  and  complicated 
organization,  he  should,  before  undertaking  to  lead 
and  use  it  as  a  force  in  the  community,  have  some 
instruction  in  business  methods,  in  church  finance, 
in  the  keeping  of  church  records,  in  the  organizing  of 
the  membership  and  the  developing  of  its  activities,  in 
his  relation  to  the  other  officers  of  the  church  and  its 
various  organizations,  men's  societies,  women's  so- 
cieties, young  people's  societies,  and  especially  to  the 
Sunday  school.  The  seminaries,  almost  without 
exception,  are  now  providing  instruction  in  the 
history  of  religious  education,  the  principles  and 
methods  of  teaching,  the  organization  and  admini- 
stration of  the  Sunday  school  and  the  training  of  its 
teachers. 

The  main  function  of  the  minister  is  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel.  Therefore  the  curriculum  of  the 
seminary  should  be  planned  with  the  controlling 
view  of  fitting  men  to  preach.     And  let  it  be  remem- 

22 


bered  that  the  preacher  is  a  man  who  has  something 
to  say  and  the  power  to  say  it.  His  preparation 
should  cover  both  points.  However  genuine  and 
deep  his  personal  experience  of  divine  grace  and 
however  rich  and  full  his  knowledge  of  the  divine 
word,  unless  he  has  aptness  to  teach  and  power  of 
public  utterance  he  cannot  preach.  His  mastery  of 
the  art  of  discourse  is  one  of  the  vital  things  in  his 
fitting  for  his  supreme  function. 

There  are  certain  special  subjects,  besides  those 
already  mentioned,  which  need  to  be  taken  account 
of  in  a  practical  way  in  the  preparation  of  the  pres- 
ent-day minister.  One  of  these  is  apologetics.  Our 
age  is  not  only  one  of  uncertainty  and  unrest  on  the 
part  of  many  within  the  Church  in  regard  to  religious 
subjects,  intelligent,  thoughtful,  and  earnest  people 
who  need  competent  guidance  that  they  may  be  re- 
assured and  confirmed  in  regard  to  vital  points  of 
faith,  but  it  is  also  an  age  of  subtly  reasoned 
scepticism  and  bold  attacks  upon  the  central 
positions  of  Christianity  which  must  be  understood 
and  met  with  scholarly  thoroughness  and  Christian 
fairness.  "Large  service  can  be  rendered  by  all 
who  help  to  restate  the  old  facta  and  unchanged 
23 


truths  in  terms  that  will  make  them  vivid  and  vital 
to  others."  ' 

Another  of  these  special  subjects  which  should 
have  attention  in  the  department  of  practical  theology 
is  comparative  religion.  Modern  exploration,  modern 
commerce,  and  modern  missions  have  put  Chris- 
tianity into  closer  contact  with  all  the  religions  of  the 
world  than  it  ever  was  before  and  have  imposed  upon 
the  Christian  minister  a  stronger  obligation  to  study 
the  relationship,  the  virtues,  and  the  defects  of  the 
various  religions  of  mankind,  and  to  vindicate  by 
comparison  and  contrast  the  divine  origin  and 
character  of  Christianity  and  make  good  its  claim 
to  be  the  ultimate  religion.  That  this  is  necessary 
for  the  Student  Volunteer,  who  expects  to  do  his 
work  in  a  foreign  land,  is  at  once  evident  to  all. 
But  it  is  necessary  also  for  the  minister  in  the 
home-land,  confronted  as  he  is  by  a  swarm  of 
''fad  religions,"  which  number  their  votaries  by 
thousands. 

The  necessity  for  careful  attention  to  the  principles 
and  methods  of  evangelistic  work  at  home  and  mis- 

1  J.  R.  Mott,  "The  Future  Leadership  of  the  Church," 
p.  20. 

24 


sionary  work  abroad  is  so  generally  recognized  that 
simple  mention  of  them  here  will  be  sufficient. 

How  does  the  minister  stand  related  to  modern 
sociology?  Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  much 
of  the  Christianity  of  our  time  than  the  deepening  of 
its  conviction  that  Christ  came  to  establish  the  King- 
dom of  God  on  earth,  here  and  now,  as  distinguished 
from  the  introduction  of  a  new  order  of  things  at  the 
millenium  or  some  other  remote  period  in  the  future, 
and  the  consequent  increase  of  its  emphasis  on  social 
reform,  the  reconstruction  of  society,  the  regeneration 
of  man's  moral,  intellectual  and  bodily  life,  as  well  as 
his  religious  or  spiritual  life,  the  elimination  of  pov- 
erty, degradation  and  misery,  the  promotion  of  social 
equity,  economic  justice,  civic  righteousness,  clean 
politics,  public  health,  and  the  like.  What  should 
be  the  minister's  relation  to  these  movements  for  the 
betterment  of  the  social  order? 

The  importance  of  determining  carefully  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  work  for  social  reform  should  be  un- 
dertaken by  the  minister  and  the  far-reaching  and 
tremendous  consequences  of  a  mistake  at  this  point 
are  impressively  set  forth  in  a  thoughtful  article  on 
''The  Gospel  and  Social  Reform,"  by  Dr.  D.  W. 
25 


Simon,     in     The     Ilomilctic     Rcviroj    for    October, 
1908. 

It  has  been  said  that  socialism  and  Christianity  are 
alike  in  that  both  of  them  seek  a  new  social  order. 
"They  are  unlike  in  the  method  by  which  they  pro- 
pose to  secure  the  new  social  order.  Socialism  at- 
tributes what  is  evil  in  men  to  the  evil  system,  and 
proposes  to  change  the  system  that  it  may  change  the 
spirit.  Christianity  attributes  what  is  evil  in  the  sys- 
tem to  the  evil  spirit  in  men,  and  proposes  to  change 
the  spirit  that  it  may  change  the  system."  '  For  in- 
stance, socialism  proposes  to  change  our  industrial 
system,  with  its  principle  of  competition,  and  make 
the  community  one  great  corporation,  whereas 
Christianity  proposes  to  change  the  spirit  and  the 
motives  of  the  men  who  are  carrying  it  on,  substitut- 
ing the  principle  of  love  for  the  spirit  of  selfishness. 
So  the  minister  is  not  to  deal  with  the  scientific  de- 
tails of  political  or  industrial  organization  and  the 
technical  problems  connected  with  capital  and  labor 
but  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  moral  principles  of  a 
true  social  order.  His  function  is  not  executive  but 
inspirational.  The  economist,  the  journalist,  the 
1  Lyman  Abbott,  "The  Christian  Ministry,"  p.  143. 
26 


statesman  must  work  out  the  machinery  which  shall 
make  effective  the  movements  for  social  betterment. 
''But  the  minister  has  an  infinitely  higher  function. 
He  has  his  hand  upon  the  springs  of  all  action.  He 
deals  with  principles,  not  policies;  with  motives,  not 
methods.  He  is  to  inspire  with  true  idealism  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  his  fellows.  In  our  pros- 
perous and  materialistic  age  and  land,  the  supreme 
need  is  for  vision,  and  the  highest  office  is  that  of  seer. 
That  is  the  precise  social  function  of  the  modern 
minister.  And  there  is  no  one  else  who  can  take  his 
place;  no  one  else  who  stands  for  the  ideal,  pure 
and  simple."  ^  ''If  ministers  will  leave  the  profes- 
sional teachers  to  expound  the  secular,  that  is,  the 
empirical  side  of  social  science,  the  newspapers  to  re- 
flect such  conclusions  as  are  reached  respecting  social 
science,  and  the  politicians  to  embody  those  opinions 
and  principles  in  law,  and  will  devote  themselves  to 
the  spiritual  study  of  the  Book  and  of  life,  they  can  be 
leaders  of  the  leaders.  They  can  lay  the  foundations 
on  which  other  men  shall  rear  the  superstructure."  ' 

»  C.  D.  Williams,  "The  Claims  of  the  Ministry  upon  Edu- 
cated Young  Men,"  The  Inter  collegian,  November,  1905,  p.  26. 
2  Lyman  Abbott,  "The  Christian  Ministry,"  p.  163. 
27 


Tlic  prcjiaration  of  the  minister  from  first  to  last 
should  be  kept  as  dose  to  life  as  i)ossible  and  should 
aim  constantly  to  give  him  all  needed  power  to  deal 
eflectively  with  ])resent-day  men  and  women  and 
children.  As  Schauffler  suggests:  "He  must  be  l>et- 
ter  acquainted  with  the  Church  sons  than  with  the 
Church  Fathers,  more  familiar  with  Jim  and  Sam 
than  with  Origen  and  Chrysostom.  His  speech  must 
be  the  speech  of  the  street,  the  home  and  the  heart." 
The  great  subjects  above  mentioned  should  all  be 
taught  with  a  constant  view  to  their  bearing  upon  the 
actual  needs  of  the  men  and  women  now  in  the  world. 

Our  conclusion  is  that  while  the  time-tested  disci- 
pline of  the  seminaries  is  better  adapted  as  a  whole 
to  the  preparation  of  the  modern  minister  for  his 
work  than  any  other  which  has  yet  been  proposed 
and  that  while  its  essential  features  should  therefore 
be  retained,  it  is  nevertheless  capable  of  improvement 
by  some  changes  of  proportion  and  emphasis,  bring- 
ing into  greater  prominence  the  English  Bible,  ad- 
ministrative and  teaching  work,  comparative  religion, 
missions,  and  above  all  the  studies  that  make  directly 
for  the  promotion  of  pulpit  power. 


28 


pjlt.  a*»*- 


